Why EverQuest house SOE went all-in with free-to-play games

SOE isn’t as high profile as in its EverQuest heyday, but it’s settled in as one of the biggest players in free-to-play triple-A games. President John Smedley discusses why he thinks SOE’s headed in the right direction.

Most company presidents spent E3 locked in meeting rooms, only getting a few sparse moments to explore the show floor. Not Sony Online Entertainment’s John Smedley. He actively spent time in the thick of things — though he rarely strayed far from his own booth.

Smedley’s a heavy FPS fan — and he’s especially enamored with SOE’s upcoming action MMO Planetside 2. That professed dedication isn’t unusual when an executive has a product to sell, but few of those executives arrive to E3 2.5 hours early so they can sneak in a couple hours of gameplay, and lob trash talk at other players.

Who is Chris?

For more than 25 years, Chris Morris has covered the financial world - and explored the business side of a variety of non-traditional businesses. He has held senior management roles at CNN, Yahoo! Finance and Forbes,

In 2009, though, he made the decision to return to his writing and reporting roots, with a focus on areas he has long covered, including video games, consumer electronics, personal finance. (He continues to keep an eye on those non-traditional fields as well.)